I have a lot to say. Let me begin with a conference on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of Tantur, located on the border between Bethlehem and Jerusalem. It is an ecumenical center, which was opened in September 1972 as a fruit of the Second Vatican Council.

Vera Baboun stands near the Church of the Nativity in the West Bank town of BethlehemOctober 7, 2012. (Photo: Reuters)

Vera Baboun, recently the first female mayor of the Palestinian town of Bethlehem, headed a bloc of 12 Muslims and Christians in Bethlehem representing the Fatah movement(Photo courtesy Maan News Agency)→ see: Palestinian woman

Ecumenism was the main subject, which was linked to interesting things. The Second Vatican Council itself was opened 50 years ago. In historical perspective there happened then something remarkable. According to the Canon Law of 1917, it was forbidden to Catholics to participate to any religious celebration of another church. This was confirmed by a story of a sister yesterday, after she picked me up on the way to Tantur. She told me that when she was a child, she played already and a pastor of a Protestant church asked her to come to his church to play. As a child, of course she asked permission from her father. He told her that it was officially not allowed, but he gave her permission. Her parents were once invited to a Catholic- Orthodox wedding celebration, but could not go because of this ban.

For the Second Vatican Council there were invited Orthodox, Evangelical Lutheran, Anglicans and Protestants representatives. They got the best seats in the auditorium, where the meetings were held. They had space for their own contribution, which they sometimes found back in the proposals, which were presented to the assembled bishops. This was an unprecedented turnaround.
At that time the church had more meaning than nowadays and I suspect that this openness also had an impact on the emergence of the hippie era, which subsequently took place.

During the conference there was painted a partial picture of Israeli society. As the Jewish community greatly divided, Christians are also divided. Besides original Palestinian Christians there are Christians from southern Lebanon, who are linked to the infamous Christian militias, who were responsible for the deaths of countless Muslims in the southern Lebanese refugee camps of Sabra and Shatila. There are many Christians from the Philippines and from South Sudan. One group has come to Israel for a better life for themselves; the other group had been fled for the war in southern Sudan. The children of these people go to mainly Hebrew-language schools. This results in the problem of how to work on transfer of Christian faith? They understand their mother tongue anymore. This now also applies to a group of Palestinian Christians from the north of Israel moved to Beer Sheva in the south.
One observation was that churches have no contact with people under 30.

Because of this conference, I had these two days less time to visit Muslim friends because of the feast of sacrifice.

Eid al-Adha, or the Feast of Sacrifice, marks the end of the annual hajj

I have to use today and tomorrow to catch up. But one visit was interesting. It was to a young Palestinian, I have helped with his studies. He studied chemistry, but neither he, nor the other 34 graduates have so far found a job. He participated in a test for teacher. There were 91 participants. None of them, however, was accepted. A test for 2400 graduates in Bethlehem yielded only 32 candidates for a job. In all of Palestine, according to him 70,000 university graduates and 9000 with a master’s are unemployed.
His father is an imam in a mosque. He is once every two months paid, which means effectively halving his salary. This is the policy of the Palestinian Authority. Thus society is moving towards an explosion.

Another strange phenomenon is that this month an electronic cigarette is available. I’ve seen some. This basically means that fewer people buy cigarettes, which is detrimental to the Palestinian treasury. Therefore, there is a ban on the sale of these electronic cigarettes. The penalty was converted about 2000 Euros, if you are caught selling such cigarette.

In the elections of last Saturday’s, among others a new mayor of Bethlehem has been elected, this time a woman who is a sister of one of our porters. He has given us some sweet because of this opportunity. When I congratulated him, I received a very personal story. I was surprised by it.

In the big world there happened plenty. The unmasking of the Tour de France speaks for itself. For me, the Tour was for several years a tour de doping.

This week I read an interesting book that I have received during my vacation. It’s called ‘Inner Dilemma’ from the Benedictine Anselm Grün. It’s about the fact that every human being has a dark side, a negative side. Who pushes that aside, will pay a price, because the shadow side surfaced then uncontrollable otherwise. The point is to integrate that shadow side. Then you can keep that side under your control.

That I feed the hungry, forgive an insult, and lovemy enemy…. these are great virtues. But what if Ishould discover that the poorest of the beggars andthe most impudent of offenders……are all within me, and that I stand in need of thealms of my own kindness; that I myself am theenemy who must be loved? What then? ~CG Jung

Interestingly, Apostle Paul alludes to the dark side in his letter to the Romans, where he writes: I don’t understand my own actions. Indeed, I do not do what I want, but what I detest. (Rom. 7.15) He points to his own inner disunity without going into details. Our point is being a whole human being and no longer torn. Trying to be perfect is rather counterproductive, as is often seen. Other people have to suffer by this.
Accept yourself with your shadow side and imperfections, and take responsibility for what you do or omit to do.

I put here a link to the scandal in the Catholic Church of sexual abuse. A negative approach to sexuality plus the emphasis to be perfect, in my view led to a crowding of sexuality, through abuse has come up again.

As attachment I add a critique of Noam Chomsky on an academic boycott of Israel and a critical note by Avnery for Obama and Abbas.

Vera Baboun stands near the Church of the Nativity in the West Bank town of Bethlehem
October 7, 2012. (Photo: Reuters)

Eid al-Adha, or the Feast of Sacrifice, marks the end of the annual hajj

That I feed the hungry, forgive an insult, and love
my enemy…. these are great virtues. But what if I
should discover that the poorest of the beggars and
the most impudent of offenders…
…are all within me, and that I stand in need of the
alms of my own kindness; that I myself am the
enemy who must be loved? What then? ~CG Jung